A New Understanding

Worried about the potential risk of running out of chi, Kantan quickly began the laborious cultivation technique. It required a considerable amount of mental energy, and the anxiety that hung over him made it hard to focus. Once he completed the first cycle he was able to notice the dense dark miasma that permeated the dungeon began to collect around him. As soon as the essence came in contact with his skin he again felt the power filling his cells. Not wanting to have it go to his head, Kantan directed the energy with his will to flow into his chi channels.

The ambient essence in the dungeon was overwhelmingly demonic in nature, making its collection and purification much faster. As he filtered the excess aspects out, some of the chi that was passing through his channels seemed to soak back into the surrounding cells. The loss concerned him, as once the energy bled back into the cells it seemed to be irretrievable. Kantan wanted to keep as much of the energy in his channels so that Veri would recover faster, but no matter how much he tried to prevent the small loss the energy escaped his grasp.

After realizing he couldn't do anything about it, he eventually gave up on it and decided he would bring it up later. Around 10 minutes went by before Veri's presence in his mind began to solidify back to its normal state. It was also around then that he noticed his core reaching a full state.

"That was unexpected, though I guess its something I could have predicted if I had gotten more time to plan our combining." Veri sent a mental image of wiping one's forehead in exertion.

Kantan let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding before responding with a quick thought. "What exactly happened there? If you start to die every time I use chi that will be really problematic for the both of us."

"I am not 100% sure if this is the case, maybe 95%. I think that my core is struggling to support me with so little energy running through it. Even if your human body can withstand the energy of a stone warrior right now, you have to keep in mind the rank of my core stone." For a moment he thought she was trying to slight his weakness again, but there was no ire to her thoughts.

Kantan thought he understood, so he tried to follow the logic further. "As an emerald core, the amount of chi you have now is a very small fraction of what your 'body' needs. If you get more, your consciousness will be stable, but with any less you start to suffer energy deprivation." He received a mental nod, so he continued with the leading question in his mind. "If we can reach the stone rank, I should be reborn with a stronger body. With a stronger body you should be able to store more chi without harming me right?"

Veri gave it some thought, "That should be the case, right now I am manually limiting how much you can store so it doesn't rip you apart when you use it." Suddenly Kantan could see the mental image of himself splattering like the erthi he had slain streamed across their connection. "While I would technically survive that, I am no longer bound to the dungeon. I am not sure if I could reconnect like it used to be."

This concerned Kantan, leading him to ponder how he would reach the stone rank. "It seems that its ever more important for us to reach the stone soul rank, not only for self defense. I still am not sure exactly how were supposed to do that, but I haven't had enough time to explore the basic idea's I've had thus far."

Since Kantan had recovered his energy, he did a quick sweep of the room and noticed a short dagger sitting a few feet behind him. He recognized it as the loot for clearing the room guardian and collected it. It was a simple blade, sharp on both sides and thick. He took a few test swings with it and found that it was well balanced. While he was primarily a hand to hand fighter, his grandfather had drilled it into him the resourcefulness of being able to handle common weaponry. Kantan tested the edge of the blade and found that while it was sharp, the elongated nails atop his fingers resisted the razor's edge.

"Its weird, its almost as if my nails are like miniature blades." Kantan was surprised at the toughness of the nails, as even after he applied more pressure with the blade he could not cut into them. "I guess things really are different from here on out."

Veri was quick to respond to his feelings of loss, "Just because you look a bit different, doesn't mean you are any less you. It is interesting though, as I have been monitoring our body there are a few things that I've noticed."

"Oh? Aside from having claws and horns?" Kantan couldn't rid the sarcasm from his thoughts, still bitter about it all.

Veri steam rolled through the slight with ease though, "Yes, aside from the claws and horns. The first thing I noticed is that you heal like a demon does, which is to say considerably quicker than humans do. Even under the influence of chi, humans would take weeks to recover from the damage you underwent during the core replacement. Its not as fast as demons, but it is not that far behind."

As Kantan reflected on it, he found that she was right. If he tracked the timing of the events he could tell that it had only taken him about a quarter of a day to heal from intense surgery. He was mostly fine by the time the trial's started, which was only about a half a day after his abduction. "That is a good point, assuming that I am not killed outright. With claws like these, I basically don't even need this dagger." With that he simply threw it into the small hole filled with demonic chi.

Veri was quick to drag him back on topic, "The second thing I noticed, or more accurately theorized based on your makeup before the procedure, is that your body is incredibly predisposed to demonic chi. Its half the reason I was able to join with you like I did."

Kantan wasn't very surprised by her findings, as he had come to the same conclusion himself. "That seems obvious given where we are, and how I got here. While I don't like it, even I can see that my body began to transition as soon as I entered."

Veri gave a mental nod, "Exactly, I've had a portion of me running in the background for a while focused on scanning and analyzing how your body has been reacting to the transition. When I started to power down there, I pulled that part back in an attempt to stay stable. As I did that, the data that version of me merged into my memories."

A few moments went by as a sense of expectation slipped through the connection. After Kantan acknowledged he was following, she continued. "From what I can tell, your body behaves surprisingly like a demonic creature in MANY ways. If anything I would say that since you were first exposed, you have become more demon than human."

Kantan couldn't help but groan, "That is NOT a good thing, especially since we have an entire clan focused on exterminating demons just above us. Why even bring this up in the first place?" He couldn't understand why it mattered if he was more demon than human. If anything he figured that it would only get him killed faster, which he definitely did not want.

She was quick to respond, a sense of seriousness tinging her voice. "It IS a good thing, though. Since you are mostly demon, that likely means that you can evolve like a demon could. Not only is it likely that you can evolve, but you also have access to something that no demon normally has access to."

"I have access to a core." The weight of the statement almost hit him like a truck, barely able to get the words out. Demons grow in power by consuming a combination of other creatures and essence. All of the essence they consume ends up going to enhance their bodies directly, with a very small portion of it being kept for storage.

That was why erthi were so quick to tire out, and why they couldn't move much when they ran out of chi. Their bodies ran on essence, and without any to power their bodies they become dormant. The upside to this though, was that even the lowest rank demons had incredible strength and speed. While humans could empower their bodies to a higher point, it burned more chi to do so. Demon's bodies naturally started at a higher fitness level.

Kantan was stunned as each realization led to another. If he had a core, than that meant his ability to store energy was higher than an average demon's. That explained why his body could support stone soul levels of energy without having been reborn. In a way though, he already had been. He had become demonic, and even he could see that he was physically stronger and faster than he used to be. "We have the natural strength and speed of being a demon, but the soul capabilities of being a human." Veri finished the thought once she felt him connect the dots.